Thursday, April 25, 2013

Here's an email the Miami Herald's Senior VP of Circulation & Operations, Craig Woischwill, sent to Herald staffers on Tuesday.

Everyone,

We have decided to delay the start of our office staff move to Doral by one week. This affects all three phases of the move.

Timing for receiving the necessary permitting and inspections to move into the Office Building has become too tight to guarantee adequate notice to those of you who were to start moving this Friday. We are still on target to complete all phases of the move before the end of May.

Work won’t slow down at either building. We are pushing hard on detail work, clean up, installation of fixtures and system preliminaries. The result will be a very nearly finished work environment when people arrive.

The move schedule has changed for a small number of work groups, driven by month-end closing and operational needs. Divisional move coordinators will receive an updated schedule tomorrow.

On the production building side, we anticipate approval to begin printing newspapers and operating by the weekend. In all likelihood, we will print our last papers in this building next week.

Lots going on, so thank you for being patient and flexible. We will continue to keep you updated.

The web has seen plenty of cats riding on Roombas before, but nothing like this. A cat, dressed as a Halloween shark, rides the robotic floor cleaner as a giddy baby duckling runs along. Finally, a witch dog appears just as the Roomba runs out of juice.

Scola, a former state prosecutor and circuit judge, reminded the eight-year veteran that some people in the community have a hard time believing police officers because of the wrongdoing of cops like James and others in his embattled department.

The bodies of three men believed to be drug dealers are pulled from the Miami River on July 29, 1985. (Tim Chapman/Miami Herald)

3 FOUND IN RIVER MAY HAVE DROWNED IN COCAINE RIP-OFF

Wednesday, July 31, 1985

by JOAN FLEISCHMAN
Herald Staff Writer

Three men whose bodies were found floating in the Miami River died from drowning, but they may have been the victims of a cocaine rip-off, robbed by a gang of men masquerading as police, Metro-Dade detectives said Tuesday.

"We don't know exactly what caused them to drown, whether they fell into the water or they were pushed in or purposedly jumped in," said Homicide Detective Alex Alvarez.

Garcia owned a restaurant, Lopez was a self-employed painter and Martinez was a handyman who did ceiling work, police said.

They were dressed in sports clothes when their bodies were fished out of the water Monday afternoon by employees of a salvage firm. Each of the victims had between $800 and $1,000 in large bills in their pockets, and still wore jewelry. Garcia and Martinez also carried pistols in their waistbands, police said. Only Garcia had an arrest record, but the charges were misdemeanors, police said.

Yesterday, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was the only guest on Michael Putney's This Week In South Florida.

From Putney's intro: "[Stephen] Ross makes his case for using tax dollars to modernize Sun Life Stadium. He says it's a perfect public-private partnership. Others call it corporate welfare for a billionaire."

Watch as Putney tries, without much luck, to get Ross to answer the basic question, "Why not pay for the renovation yourself?"

“We smell smoke, people running to the center, cars going straight, cars turning to the right. Whether they cordoned off this block, we can see a helicopter that is up in the air. Something has just happened. Police officers are running, we have a dog, a dog that’s on its way. Interesting, that dog is barking. Whether that’s a canine, we don’t know.”-Deborah Feyerick, CNN.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

"That's why a bomb can't beat us. That's why we don't hunker down. That's why we don't cower in fear. We carry on. We race. We strive. We build, and we work, and we love."- President Obama, speaking today in Boston.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Awarded to the Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for its well documented investigation of off-duty police officers who recklessly speed and endanger the lives of citizens, leading to disciplinary action and other steps to curtail a deadly hazard.

The Sun Sentinel was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for public service journalism on Monday for its investigation of off-duty police officers endangering the lives of citizens by speeding.

The resulting series, Above the Law: Speeding Cops, broke new ground in database journalism and had an immediate and lasting impact on the community.

Sun Sentinel investigative reporter Sally Kestin and database specialist John Maines, working with investigative team editor John Dahlburg, used data collected from SunPass toll booths to calculate the officers' speed.

The three-part series was published in February, revealing the shocking behavior of law enforcement officers behind the wheel. The reporters found nearly 800 officers who reached speeds of 90-130 mph, many of them while off duty. The accidents caused by officers driving at high speeds had caused at least 320 crashes since 2004, killing or maiming 21 people.
[...]
The project was led overall by Metro Editor Dana Banker, Associate Editor Willie Fernandez, and Sun Sentinel Editor Howard Saltz.

"This is such an exciting moment for our newsroom and it's a reflection of the kind of work that we want to be known for," Fernandez said.

The Sun Sentinel newsroom erupted in cheers Monday and toasted the Pulitzer-winning team with champagne.

"I'm just so proud of this team," Banker said. "It was a huge commitment: These reporters analyzed more than a million database records and drove more than 2,500 miles to accurately determine the speeds and distances involved. Their work made a difference — and that's what good local journalism is all about."

"Before the series ran, cops around South Florida were notorious for speeding,'' said Maines. "We had all seen them zip by at breakneck speeds. After the Miami incident made headlines, Sally came up with the idea of using SunPass data."

Today we are announcing a furlough program for the first half of 2013. Most full-time employees who work a regularly scheduled 40-hour week, including executives and managers, will be required to take one week of unpaid furlough by June 30, 2013.

Nationwide as well as in our business, recovery from the recession continues to be choppy, so we must strive to manage our expenses accordingly.

Furlough information and scheduling forms can be accessed by clicking on this link to HR Forms on HeraldHub. Each division will communicate specifics regarding this program and manage its own process for sign-up and scheduling.

Please know that we are seeing some positive results in our new revenue initiatives despite the uneven economic environment. Your contributions have been key to the accomplishments we’ve achieved in moving toward a successful future.

Thank you for your talent, hard work and dedication.

David

A few days later, Herald TV critic Glen Garvin tweeted this response to Landsberg's email.

Kansas City Star publisher Mark Zieman is named McClatchy operations veep
“With his move to the Sacramento metropolitan area from Kansas City to take the position of Vice President, Operations, the Company provided Mr. Zieman with relocation benefits. For 2012, these benefits included shipping household goods, temporary housing and assistance with the sale of his prior home. These benefits totaled $164,643.” – from McClatchy’s SEC filing

McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt resigns to become Associated Press president
paintings“Upon his retirement from the Company after nearly 28 years of service, 16 of those years as CEO, Mr. Pruitt was presented with two paintings that had hung in his office. These were valued at approximately $25,000, and after being grossed up for taxes the value of the total gift was $35,848.” – also from the SEC filing

Patrick Talamantes, who replaced Pruitt as McClatchy CEO, made $1.6 million in 2012 and gets a 10% raise in 2013, bringing his base salary from $750,000 to $825,000. In 2012, he got a $270,000 bonus because “under Mr. Talamantes’ leadership, the Company continued to make significant progress in meeting the challenges faced by newspaper companies,” says the filing.
[The next time you run into a Miami Herald staffer, ask them when they last got a bonus or pay raise.]

The [helicopter] camera captures Walker’s [younger] brother [Antwan Carl Walker] first rush past the police tape to the body on the sidewalk, which is surrounded by evidence markers pinpointing spent bullet casings.

Several Miami police officers grab him and try to lead him away.

Then Walker’s [older] brother [Anthony Ezel Carl Walker], wearing a white tank top and turquoise shorts, pushes through the yellow police tape and joins the melee, trying to help his older brother now scuffling with up to six officers and detectives.

[Homicide detective Feranando] Bosch, in a white shirt, tie and slacks, grabs and pushes the second Walker brother back to the other side of the yellow police tape.

As he does, Bosch throws three fast punches at the man’s face, briefly chokes him [at 1:51 on the tape below] and then punches him [at 1:57] a fourth time. The final punch is so powerful that it knocks the man to the ground. He's then handcuffed and arrested by a uniformed officer.

As that incident ends, Walker’s mother is seen running to her dead son and trying to lift the tarp to make sure it’s him. She, too, is grabbed by an officer and led away, handcuffed and detained.

At 6pm every station in town leads their newscast with the story and the dramatic footage.

At Local 10, veteran reporter Jeff Weinsier anchors his station's coverage from the newsroom, narrating the footage shot from the helicopter.

Several times, Weinsier mentions that the family members disobeyed police orders while trampling over evidence trying to get to the body of their deceased relative. Weinsier didn't report anything that other Miami stations didn't report.

Last night, Fraternal Order Police president and Miami Police Sgt. Javier Ortiz sent out a press release [embedded below] defending the actions of Detective Bosch. And then, in one unusual paragraph, Ortiz unloaded on Weinsier...misspelling his name in the process:

Click to enlarge.

Late last night, the two men who ran past the police tape were booked into jail.

"Anthony Walker, 28, was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. Antwan Walker, 27, was charged with resisting an officer without violence," Local 10 reported.

Friday, April 05, 2013

It appears that when all the facts surrounding Wednesday's tragic wrong-way crash on I-95 become known, we may learn that more than one person in the dysfunctional town of Opa-Locka will be shown to have the blood of four innocent people on their hands.

The Opa-Locka PD, it appears, has no discernible hiring standards for its officers, and no supervision of those officers once they hit the streets.

Or put another way, the Opa-Locka PD's professional standards are roughly akin to those of the Haitian National Police; if that.

According to the Miami Herald, Sergio Perez, the Opa-Locka police corporal who initiated the chase that led up to the deadly crash, "began his law enforcement career as a police explorer in Miami Beach. He twice failed the police entrance exam before being hired by Miami Shores in October 2006 as a recruit."

But just two months into his training, he crashed his car into another vehicle on I-95 while drag-racing at speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour, according to the FHP report. A city of Miami police detective witnessed the race, the report said. Perez, who was off duty, was taken into custody on reckless driving charges. It’s not clear from the report whether he was driving a patrol car or his personal vehicle.

But he was fired the following day and kicked out of the police academy.

He applied to Opa-locka a month later, noting on his application that the reason for leaving Miami Shores was because he “received a criminal traffic citation.’’

Opa-locka hired him a year later, in March 2008. There is no indication in his personnel file that the city conducted a background check or investigated why he left Miami Shores.

A month later, he was given a “post-accident substance control test,’’ which he passed. It’s not clear why the test was administered, since there is no accident report in his file.

German Bosque's personnel file looks more like a rap sheet than a résumé.

In two decades, the Opa-Locka Police Department opened 40 internal affairs cases on Bosque. Sixteen of them were for battery or excessive force.

Fired five times and arrested three, he was charged with stealing a car, trying to board an airplane with a loaded gun and driving with a suspended license.

Internal Affairs investigations found that Bosque split a man's lip with a head butt. He opened another man's head with a leg sweep and takedown. He spit in the face of a drunken, stumbling arrestee. One time, he smacked a juvenile so hard the boy's face was red and swollen the next day.

Bosque has been caught defying direct orders, lying to supervisors and falsifying police reports. Off duty, he was accused by women of domestic violence and stalking. During inspections, the agency found a counterfeit $20 bill, cocaine and crack pipes in his patrol car.

Still, Bosque has kept his badge.
[...]
Bosque is surprised he still wears a badge. He knows he is lucky to have gotten one in the first place.

He was kicked out of two police academies, the first for sleeping in class and the second after he was arrested on charges he stole a car, had a gun and impersonated an officer. He was later acquitted.

To most Florida law enforcement agencies, Bosque would be toxic. In Opa-Locka, he has been promoted to sergeant.

The city and its 62-person police force have been waylaid by years of incompetence, corruption and instability.

Bosque and other former officers guessed the department has had at least a dozen chiefs over the last 20 years. The interim city manager, Bryan Finnie, could not offer a definitive count.

The current chief, Cheryl Cason, was suspended earlier this year and investigated for allegedly covering up her role in a traffic crash. In 1995, when she was an Opa-Locka officer, Cason's certification was put on probation after she tested positive for cocaine.

Local news outlets have reported at least four city officials have been indicted on charges including tax fraud, taking bribes from a contractor and even using a city credit card to woo a paramour at P.F. Chang's.

The current mayor, Myra Taylor, took a plea deal in a federal tax case in 2004, left office and was re-elected in 2010. She did not return calls for comment.

Opa-Locka made headlines again last month when federal agents stormed City Hall to seize records on a police captain charged with protecting a drug ring and acting as a lookout during a bank robbery.

State law enforcement officials have investigated the police department but change has been slow. In 2002, the FDLE did a full review of the department and found it lacked enough squad cars, computers and weapons. FDLE agents also discovered untagged evidence in storage lockers, emergency calls put on hold and staffing shortages.

Former officers told the Herald-Tribune they once had to buy their own guns and bulletproof vests because the budget was so lean. And while there has been a recent push to replace aging weapons and patrol cars, Opa-Locka remains one of the worst-paying jobs in Florida. Rookie officers make $32,000, among the lowest entry wage for law enforcement officers in all of South Florida.

It's must reading for anyone who wants to know more about the Herald and its future. But what sets it apart is that it's the kind of business story on the paper and the problems it faces that you'll never see in the Herald.

There's a ton of information in Bojnansky's piece....along with some telling quotes from current and former Herald staffers and South Florida business types.

Here are some of the best:

“The people who are here are still doing very good journalism. There are fewer of them and it’s a challenge. But I think, especially when compared to other papers, they’re still doing some serious journalism.” -John Dorschner, retired Herald business writer

“If I wanted to do a story on the Herald, it would be how corporate in Sacramento has set up what I call the death spiral. It’s inexorably leading to the Herald’s demise.” -Anonymous Herald staffer

“They overpaid for Knight Ridder, and now [McClatchy] is too far in debt. The Herald is a profitable newspaper in and of itself. The problem is that it’s not profitable enough to meet the company’s needs.” -Jim DeFede, former Herald columnist and CBS4 Investigative reporter

“It’s still a terrific newspaper. There’s no news organization that comes close to it in Miami.” -Joseph Treaster, retired New York Times reporter

“They’re an important institution and they are the major newspaper of the community. They wield a lot of influence in the community and they have the ability of causing a lot of things to happen.” -Norman Braman

“Any newspaper in this nation would be delighted to have those people and others like them who still work in the Herald newsroom.”
-Martin Merzer, retired Herald senior writer

“What’s left of the staff seems heavily weighted toward interns, and much of the daily report seems thinly reported and/or misplayed. Also, the Herald has been getting badly beaten on some sports scandals and other stories lately.”
-Martin Merzer

“Every time there’s cost-cutting, I think maybe they’re dressing it up to be sold.” -Seth Gordon, Miami media consultant

“Something called the Miami Herald will be here in five years and probably in ten years, though no one can say what form it will take. Twenty years? I’m not so sure.” -Martin Merzer

“I hope they have fun. The only fun I’ll have is when they bulldoze the son of a bitch.” -Tim Chapman, retired Herald photographer on his decision not attend a recent reunion of current and former staffers

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

"Here I am with some of the dangerous response [sic] we took off our streets today!"- @JerryLibbin

Miami Beach is a safer place this week than it was last week. At least that's what Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin would have you believe.

The city held a gun buyback event last Saturday and ended up collecting 25 "dangerous" firearms.

On his Facebook page and on Twitter, Libbin posted a picture of some of the weapons and wrote, "Great success today taking 25 dangerous weapons off the street and making MB safer for our children!"

In another post, Libbin wrote that he sponsored the buyback initiative "over the objections of some of my fellow commissioners."

I responded to his post, asking, "Who objected to the buyback and why?"

Libbin, who's running for mayor, didn't answer me.

So I contacted Miami Beach Vice Mayor Michael Góngora in search of some answers.

Tuesday morning, Góngora - who is also running for mayor in November - told me by phone that there weren't any objections to Libbin's proposal, rather he - and other commissioners - simply wanted to know if the money spent buying back the guns could be better spent paying overtime for a cop to walk a beat or other more effective crime-fighting measures. Góngora also wanted to know if there was a way to determine that only Miami Beach residents would be turning in guns.

"I also wanted to be sure that this wasn't some kind of sound good, feel good thing," Góngora told me, adding, "would this buyback have an actual impact on preventing crime?"

Yesterday, one veteran Miami Beach cop seemed to mirror Góngora's concerns, telling me, "You have a better chance of being run down and killed by a drunk bartender leaving Nikki Beach at five in the morning than you do of being hit by a stray bullet from from a gun that's sitting in someone's closet."

But Libbin is sticking to his guns, telling a TV reporter Saturday, "Anything we can do to take a weapon off the street is one less potential disaster."

And that's probably something he'll be repeating often between now and the November election, because on Miami Beach, when it comes to political rhetoric, you can never set the bar too low.

Remember, Miami Beach is the place where Matti Bower was elected mayor, not once, not twice, but three times.

A new baseball stadium was supposed to fix South Florida’s lukewarm embrace of professional baseball. But the Marlins’ first season in their new ballpark may have made things even worse for the team.

Splurging on payroll last year gave owner Jeffrey Loria a $100 million lineup that he couldn’t afford without a windfall from a winning season. The trades that followed last year’s 93-loss debacle sent payroll down 60 percent to the second-lowest in baseball, leaving fans more furious at the Marlins than at any time in the franchise’s 20 year-history.

And while cutting payroll used to produce profits, the added debt and operating costs of a new $634 million stadium have left team executives predicting another loss on top of last year’s team record $47 million operating loss.

Also in Sunday's Herald was this full page ad with for Marlins Opening Night. Looks like Loria has had enough and plans to go out in a blaze of glory. Why is no one talking about this?